Thursday, 24 May 2012

Sweden moves to outlaw forced marriages

Anyone in
Sweden who forces someone else to get married against their will can be
sent to prison, according to proposed legislation presented Thursday
which aims to criminalize forced marriages.

"We want to criminalize child marriage and forced marriage. It should
also be a punishable offence to take a child out of the country and
marry them off there," Göran Lambertz, who heads the government inquiry tasked with drawing up new legislation, told Sveriges Television (SVT).

Lambertz has said previously that the new law included a proposal that
anyone convicted of forced marriage could be sentenced to up to two
years in prison.

On May 1st 2004, Sweden changed its marriage laws to make marriage under
the age of 18 illegal, even if the marriage was entered into abroad.

Until then, it was possible for citizens of countries were the legal
marrying age was under 18 to marry in Sweden from the age of 15 and up
without requesting special permission.

But last year the government declared it wanted to see if further
restrictions could be drawn up against so-called proxy marriages to try
to ensure that marriages are entered into voluntarily by all parties.

The inquiry also proposes scrapping an exception to current marriage laws allowing people under the age of 18 to get married.

Sweden currently has an exemption for child marriages in cases where an underage girl is pregnant.

"We want to get rid of that. It shouldn't be possible to get an
exemption for child marriage," Lambertz told Sveriges Television (SVT).